LESSON 3: HOW TO WRITE AN ARGUMENT

3.2.1. What do we mean by an 'argument'?

The 'argument' is another word for what you do in the 'main body' of your academic paper.
Argument suggests that the writer has a point of view.

3.2.2. How do you produce a good argument?

The best thing to do is read published academic papers. If you do, you find that writers
spend a lot of time:

1. Advancing their own arguments by giving evidence (usually in a tentative tone)

2. Referring to their own work (sometimes called 'signposting')

3. Reviewing other authors’ work (usually critically but in a polite tone)

4. Qualifying statements

5. Making analogies

3.2.3. Some common problems in writing arguments

Student writers often know that they should have an 'argument' and that this is connected
to having a point of view. As many students don't have a point of view about 'their' topic
(because they frequently have not chosen it), they compensate by

- inserting lots of confident-sounding statements about their point of view ('In my

opinion...', 'Undeniably...'),

- using lots of 'logical connectors' ('however', 'besides', 'moreover',etc) - sometimes

overused so they are quite illogical!
STRATEGIES FOR PRODUCING A GOOD ARGUMENT

1. Advancing their own arguments by giving evidence

This section contains the sorts of useful phrases skilled writers use to put forward their
own arguments.

Adding points
Again,... It should also be noted that…
Another possibility is that… Mention should also be made of…
At the same time it is true to say... Related to these arguments is the critique that…
Beyond x there were further... The corollary of this is that…
In addition.../additionally The key point to note is that…
In any case… The same can be said of…
In other words… The same is true of…
It should also be emphasized that… This in turn means that..
Also /Furthermore

Arguing tentatively
At the same time it could be argued that… It may well be asked how…
For one thing it could be argued that… It might be argued that…
Indeed, it might be argued that… Nor is it entirely fanciful to suggest that…
It is interesting to speculate on what would Of course it could be argued that…
happen if... Still, there is no denying that…
It is tempting to pose another question. This is not to say that there are not...

Asking questions
How can we explain x? The question remains…
More controversial is the question as to What are the arguments on the other side?
whether… Why for example did x happen?
The crucial question may therefore be…

Comparing
In sharp contrast to x, y is not...
Though it may seem a stretch to compare x with y...
While x are large, y are much more important

Concluding
All things considered then… It seems clear that…
Events show us that… It seems not implausible to link x with y
Finally, More generally it seems hard to deny that…
In any case it seems clear that… To put it crudely…
In short,… To put it simply…
It is difficult to escape the conclusion that… To sum up:
Distinguishing
I would like to distinguish between x and y. The essential point on which I differ is that...
On the other hand... There is however an important difference
The big difference between x and y is that... between x and y.
The essential difference is that... This difference clearly cannot be explained by...
We must here make a distinction.

Exemplifying
A classic illustration often cited is… This was typified by…
Another example of this may be given. To take yet another illustration...
Or let us take another example. Typical of x was…
That x happened illustrates the point that… For instance
To illustrate
Consider…

Explaining
A general explanation remains difficult to find/elusive./one possible explanation…
As a result…
As for x, that would not have delivered y.
Despite the fact that x happened, it is not clear that…
For all these reasons, what x has to say needs to be treated with caution.
How are we to explain x?
If one looks at x in historical perspective, one finds that/ it is clear that...
Moreover it is at least arguable that…
Partly for this reason it was inevitable that…
The first thing we notice is the...
The main reason it happened was that…
The reality was at best that…
The reasons for x cannot be traced to either y or z.
The tendency of x is not necessarily a disadvantage.
This achievement was primarily due to…
This applies especially to…
This in turn means that...
This problem has two aspects. As regards x... As regards y... For these two reasons...
This was a product of...
What these cases show is that...

Focussing
An important point sometimes overlooked is that…
Essentially we need to look at…
I do not mean to say x, but I do mean to say y.
In this respect it is important to note.../with respect to
It is important in this context to try to distinguish between x and y.
It is important to realize that...
More importantly
Of these points, the first needs to be discussed in more detail.
One of the most important points is that...
The essential point is that...
The essential thing about x is that it has y.
The facts of the matter therefore seem clear.
The importance of this lies in the fact that...
The importance of this lies in...
The real problem was not x but y.
The significance of this is that...
There are three key points in the above theory.
There is another possibility which has received too little attention. This is the thesis that…
This is arguably the most important point:
This is the key to the problem.
This means that...
This takes us to the heart of the matter
This was one of the most important reasons why…
Two questions especially interest me. The first of these is...
Two types of x need to be distinguished: The one is... The other kind is...
Yet the important point to note is that…
In particular

Qualifying
But there is a need for qualification…
In part, this might be explained by,...
To some extent it is true to say that...

Referring to own evidence

As table x shows…
Figure x combines y and z
My own rough calculations summarized in table x confirm that…
Table x summarizes the best available data. It will be seen that…
The figures show clearly that…
These figures/results suggest that…

Reformulating
In other words…
That is...
2. Referring to their own work (sometimes called 'signposting')

This section offers you help with the sort of referencing used inside papers. This is
sometimes called 'signposting' because it points the reader backwards or forwards inside
the text. It may also refer to evidence such as tables or statistics given in the paper.
Limiting the scope
Referring back
Referring forward
Referring to own evidence

Limiting the scope

But I will not consider this in the present discussion.
Given the time/space available I will be unable to go into...
This isn't the place to go into detail...
Without going into technical detail, it is possible to explain the broad principles of the theory.

Referring back
As we have seen…
As noted already…
The view put forward above explains why...
We have already seen that… However (make additional point)
We saw in the above definition that...
As indicated

Referring forward
As will be argued in the next section…
Assuming x is the case, it remains to ask...
I would now like to have a look at...
The previous section considered only x options. Now we are going to look at…
There are various ways in which we might attempt to tackle this problem.
What are the arguments on the other side?
Without going into technical detail, it is possible to explain the broad principles of the theory.
Leaving the topic of x on one side, let us examine the differences between x and y.

Referring to own evidence

According to the best available statistics…
As table x shows…
Figure x combines y and z
However these are of all the figures the least reliable.
However, these figures omit large numbers of people who…
If one ignores x, the figure rises to…
It will be seen at once that...
My own rough calculations summarized in table x confirm that…
One estimate puts it as high as…
Similar evidence can be found to support the view that…
Table x summarizes the best available data. It will be seen that…
The evidence is however ambiguous.
The figures show clearly that…
These figures suggest that…
We must of course treat these figures with caution.
When x is combined with y it seems that…
3. Reviewing other authors’ work (usually critically but in a polite tone)

This section contains the sorts of useful phrases skilled writers use to put forward to
review other authors' work. Some of their tactics are quite subtle (conceding points),
others pretty familiar and simple (citing) - except that here we give you a wider range of
options than you will find in most textbooks.
Citing
Conceding a point to an opposing argument (and then criticizing it)
Criticizing
Reviewing other arguments

Citing
According to x… In x's words:
As x has argued… It is usually asserted that…
As x has observed… Some authorities have implied that…
As x has pointed out… This is not an isolated view.
As x has put it… X contended/ suggested that…
As x has said… X convincingly argues that…
As x has shown… X has called it…
As x memorably put it… X has concluded that…
As x put it… X has gone so far as to speak of…
Few share x's view that… X has put it simply/bluntly…
In (x book) y author suggested that… X once defined the objective of y as…
In his article, x astutely argued that… X points to…/supports/offers
In support of his argument x is able to quote… X was quite right when he said that…

Conceding a point to an opposing argument (and then criticizing it)

Although this argument has some merit, a number of qualifications need to be made.
In fairness to x … yet…
In one respect x's thesis that (give details) was quite wrong. However …
It is certainly hard to see a plausible alternative to… Still if we look at…
It is often assumed that… However,…
It is quite true that… Yet in reality the most important factor was that…
It is true that (give details of opposing view)… However (affirm own argument)…
More credible is the argument that… However…
Moreover it is at least arguable that… Yet the extent to which x happened should not be exaggerated.
What is more… In reality…
Nothing can detract from the central fact that… However what is even more surprising is that…
Some have argued that… The reality is that…
Some would say that this by itself is sufficient explanation. However…
Such explanations are too simplistic. They tend to overlook the fact that… It is also sometimes forgotten
that…
Superficially there is reason to think that… However…
There is no doubt that x is true. However it is too much to claim that… Nor should it be assumed that…
There is, of course, a natural temptation to conclude that… But this was not the case. In fact… Indeed it
has even been suggested by one writer that…
To be sure… (x is true), but…

Criticizing
A more fundamental objection to this argument is that...
But the evidence seems too strong to suggest that…
But there is a need for qualification…
Disproportionate attention has been paid to…
However it is not true to claim that…
Similarly, the arguments against x ignore the fact that…
Such evidence does not constitute adequate support for the theory that…
The obverse of this argument is that…
The possible flaw in this argument is…
There is a degree of truth to the view that...
There is another possibility which has received too little attention, namely that...
There are however a number of difficulties with this critique.
This, so it is argued, was the reason why…
Under the influence of x (author) I came to think of this view as mistaken.
Unfortunately for such theories, x was not common.
x author's arguments need to be qualified and updated in several respects. The most important
caveat/change/development/objection/qualification is that...
Yet there are limits to how far the idea of/concept of x can be taken.
Yet there is a need not to overstate the importance of…

Reviewing other arguments

A familiar objection to this argument is that…
Apologists for this line of argument remind us that…
Despite these criticisms few, however, would deny that...
For all these reasons, what x has to say needs to be treated with caution.
In defence of this view, a number of explanations have been offered.
It has also been persuasively argued that…
Observers of x have noted that...
One study conducted in (year) found that... (cite author)
So far as x is concerned...
Some parts of this theory are surprising.
Such views continue to be influential.
The essence of the argument is that...
The most common critique made by authors is that...
The most modern research has provided ample support for these arguments. In particular the claim that…
The principal criticism has been that…
There is indeed some evidence to support the latter thesis.
There is some evidence to support x's thesis.
This argument can be pursued in more detail.
This line of argument has been further developed by…
This point has been overlooked by many authors.
This problem has been dealt with by various authors...
Those who agree with this view include…
Those who fall into this camp include…
Typical of this approach is…
What are the arguments on the other side?
Whereas earlier accounts emphasized x, it is now commonly argued that…
x's arguments in favour of y are twofold/threefold/fourfold.
X deals with y and is concerned to show that
X is not content with (making a modest claim); She also insists that (making a larger claim)
X has been among the supporters of the view that…
x's original thesis has been vastly elaborated into the theory that...
X repeatedly refers to… Though it is now fashionable to criticize x, there is something to be said for…
4. Qualifying statements

If you qualify your statement, you add some information, evidence, or phrase in order to
make it less strong or less generalized (recommended). It is not good practice to produce
lots of strong (or categorical) statements. These are statements which you appear to
support 100%. If for example you say 'It is undeniable that…’, you are making a
categorical statement (not recommended).

You might think that by making strong statements you sound confident. Nothing could
be further from the truth. Your reader will probably think you lack wisdom. So... It is far
better to write in a cautious style and not to commit yourself absolutely to
generalizations. This an area where many second language writers are particularly weak.

EXAMPLES

Anyone looking at the data would have to agree that lean production is a
technique that is exportable across borders. But there might be important
cultural factors that could limit its success in certain countries.

Up to a point we can agree with Blair when he argues that nationalization is an

ineffective way to organize industry. However the track record of some newly
privatised industries suggests that....

In effect the results show that further research is necessary before we can reach any
firm conclusions in this area.
Despite this month's unemployment figures, we can be more or less certain that the
economic downturn has completed its cycle.

Useful words

So to speak Almost

To all intents and purposes In a way

To some extent In effect

Up to a point More or less

It is no exaggeration to say that Practically

Perhaps
5. Making analogies

It is often effective academic style to illustrate what something is like by describing

something similar to it. You say that x is like y.

EXAMPLE 1

The Role of Systems Engineers

Using a different analogy, Mar says the systems engineer is like the "conductor of
an orchestra who gets everybody to play at the right intensity at the right time." He
emphasizes that systems engineering focuses on what is best for the overall system,
even if that requires the engineering specialists to design less than optimal subsystems.

EXAMPLE 2

Is it fair to compare the modern cases of "de-repressed memory" of child sexual

trauma to the witch-crazes of several centuries ago? There are some parallels, but the
differences are just as striking. In terms of similarities, some of the modern stories
actually resemble the stories of earlier times (e.g., witches flying into bedrooms).

EXAMPLE 3

An analogy can be drawn to the early-1980s competition among cable TV vendors to

receive exclusive franchises from communities. Those educators smart enough to
participate in that bargaining process received substantial resources buildings wired for
free, dedicated channels, sophisticated production equipment because the vendors
knew public service applications would help determine who won. In the same manner,
during today's much larger war in the information services industry, educators that
have innovative alternatives to "talking heads" instruction can find vendors happy to
share the costs in exchange for help with the regulators, legislators, and judges who are
determining which coalitions will manage the nation's information infrastructures.